The device of the present invention is of the same general type as is disclosed in Furgal et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,105, and is intended for the same purpose. Furgal provides an apertured dispensing container which is filled with liquid fabric conditioner, and which is intended to be placed in an automatic laundry dryer to permit the liquid conditioner to condition the fabric articles in the dryer and free the articles from static cling. Liquid fabric conditioners which prevent static cling are readily available on the market.
Unlike the Furgal device, in accordance with the present invention, in one of its embodiments, the dispensing container is filled with absorbent material, such as a polyester fabric, and when the conditioning liquid is added to the dispensing container, it is completely absorbed by the absorbing material. The holes in the dispensing container of the present invention may be relatively large, for example, of the order of 1/4 of an inch diameter, and, since all the conditioner is absorbed in the absorbent material within the container, there is no danger of any of the conditioner liquid leaking out through the holes so as to stain and ruin the fabrics in the dryer.
The container of the first embodiment tends to be noisy when used in an automatic laundry dryer. This is obviated by the container of the second embodiment in which the liquid or solid conditioner is contained in a porous fabric bag.
The automatic laundry dryer in which the device of the present invention is used in a tumbling drum-type, in which the clothes being dried are tumbled around within the dryer and, at the same time, hot air is passed through the dryer to dry the clothes. This hot air causes the liquid conditioner absorbed within the dispensing container of the invention to be vaporized, so that conditioning vapor passes through the holes of the dispensing container and effectively conditions the fabrics within the dryer and renders them free of static cling, all without any danger of any substantial staining of the clothes in the dryer.